hondo in seattle

Good to see Moulds and Freddie here. I can't help but wonder how productive Moulds would have been with a better QB situation and how much more Freddie would have been if he played behind a good offensive line.

My evaluation really isn't based on any kind of numbers. And if I were to look at numbers, I wouldn't look at carries. A RB can't control how many times he totes the ball. My evaluation is based on watching Fred play. Back in his prime, there were so many times I thought to myself, "Wow! Imagine what this guy could do if he played behind a good line!" Part of that daydream is seeing Fred get those 300 carries in a season and not getting hurt and not sharing the rock with Travis Henry, Lynch, CJ or whoever else. I think the 5.5 yards per pop Fred earned in 2011 showed what his potential was. But we'll never really know.

We threw the ball more than we passed for a number of reasons: * Our QB was not an elite passer. His accuracy and ability to find open guys were not among the best. * Our RB - McCoy - was elite. When you have a big gun, you shoot it. * Roman was a running game guru. He designed great running plays. * Roman was not a passing game guru. He designed simplistic, easily-defended passing plays. * The guy calling the plays - ALynn - was an ex-RB and ex-RB coach. He understood the run game and was comfortable with it. He was an inexperienced neophyte in the passing game. * Our receiving corps was relatively untalented and banged-up. Yep, TT didn't throw the ball as well as Brady or Brees last year. But that was far from the only reason our passing game wasn't more productive or didn't attempt more passes. It remains to be seen how many of our deficiencies Dennison can fix. I won't judge the 2017 offense until I see it.

Good topic... and some good stories. Unfortunately, my own dad isn't a Bills fan - or any kind of NFL fan. He was 40 years already when Ralph brought the Bills to Buffalo and never learned to like them. Well, at least he's not a Pats fan either. He's so blue-collar that he thinks Monday thru Saturday are for the job and Sunday is for chores around the house (not for silly games). You're not a man if you're not productive. He retired from his truck driving drive job when he was 63, hated retirement, and got a new job when he was 64 and kept on working for the next twenty years until no one would hire him anymore. Frustrated he couldn't get a paying job, he become a volunteer fireman when he was 89. Today my dad is 97 and goes to the gym at the firehouse 5 days a week - he figures he's got to stay busy somehow.

I disagree. Certainly he lacked OJ's elusiveness and top speed, for example. But I believe, back in his prime, Fred was among the league leaders in yards after contact. Our OL just wasn't good back then and Fred found ways to be productive anyway. That's an elite skill. I'm not sure he would have led the league in rushing for multiple years. I do believe though IF Fred started in the NFL at a younger age, and IF he played for a good team with a good line, and IF he would have stayed healthy, he would have had a HOF career with HOF stats. Then again, life is full of IFs.

This is from 2008. We have new owners and, more recently, a new GM. I have no inside info but I'll speculate that Overdorf's role has been redefined since then. Overdorf may be good at his new role whatever it may be. But not knowing what exactly his responsibilities are currently, I hesitate to judge.

Thurman, I respect you as one of the more intelligent posters on this board but I have to disagree to an extent. Let's say the Bills score 100 offensive TDs this year. But only 37 of the 100 TDs came through the air. Would you still be disappointed in the passing game? The percent of TDs that come through the air is meaningless. Think about this: teams today generally pass more than they run. So today's defenses (schemes, rosters, lineups) are more designed to stop the pass than the run. In fact, defenses are in nickel and dime packages about 60% of the time. The ancient Chinese strategist, Sun Tzu, said it's best to 'attack where there is no defense.' So if defenses are trying to stop the pass, maybe the smart thing to do right now is run. It's certainly the smart thing to do when your RB is better than your QB. In the end, why do we care how we get our points as long as we score more than our opponent? Last year, we were in the top 10 in scoring but our D was weak. We need to get better at D. But you're right - we're unlikely to be as effective on the ground this year as we were last year. So - to stay in the top 10 in scoring - we're going to have to develop a better passing game. And I think we will - screw the pundits.

A long known truism that's too often ignored. Most players are JAGs. The few who aren't - Sammy, Shady - need to be fed the ball often.

I generally agree with you. But there aren't two - and only two - distinct flavors of defensive football in the NFL. In fact, teams run some version of the nickel something like 60% of the time.

The only thing Doug did right was hire Jim Schwartz. Doug's offense was offensive.

The article gives credit to the threat of Tyrod's running - some of us have been saying this for a while. It's hard to quantify TT's contribution to the offense last year. He didn't throw for a lot of yards and he certainly demonstrated some deficiencies as a passer. But Tyrod added more to the ground game than just the yards he actually ran for. Just talking about the run game, there was a powerful alchemy in the combination of Shady athleticism, Tyrod's athleticism, Roman's play-design and ALynn's play-calling. I'm really interested in seeing how Dennison uses Tyrod & Shady this season. Football is simple: all you need to do is score more points than your opponent. And we scored a lot of points last season - especially when TT was playing and ALynn was calling the plays. But our opponents scored even more 9 out of 16 times. That's not the fault of our offensive passing game. I don't care how we score our points as long as we score more than the other guys.

I was about to start a new thread linking this very same article but big C beat me to it. While most fans worry about the passing game, I don't. I think we pretty much know what it'll look like this year (and it won't look like Drew Brees throwing for 5,000 yards). What I worry about instead is the run game. It was so effective last year - most yards, most yards per play before contact, most yards per play - that it's hard to imagine it being so productive again. I hope Rico is studying what worked last year for us, besides bringing in his own stuff. Supposedly he was running with a hurt foot. But I agree, JW did not look impressive in '16.

I wonder if the high turnover matters a little less because we've also turned over the coaching staff. More-or-less all these players are new to the coaches and their new schemes - whether they donned a Bills uni last year or not.

Of the 68 players who saw the field on at least one game last year, only 32 remain. And that number may get smaller by opening day against the Jets. I don't know what the league average is, but I think TC is right: turnover is staggering.

Good info. I wonder how much personnel departments look at this kind of stuff. I would guess there's enough hubris in personnel departments that they don't care about this hardly at all. They're going to draft who they want regardless of what the data shows about the relative success of different positions in different rounds.

Good playcalling? Good scheme? Good blocking? Quick, decisive backs hitting holes pronto? I think it was more scheme than anything else. And that worries me with a change in scheme this year.

If everyone stays healthy, and if Zay Jones adapts to the NFL the way we hope he does, we'll be okay at wideout. Those are pretty big if's. So however good Holmes turns out to be, we would have been better with Maclin.

Bills fans know it's not their money. It's about opportunity cost. If we pay $7 million for Maclin, that's $7 million we don't have for other players. Though I personally would have been tempted to offer Maclin $6 or $7 million - just to make sure our WR corps is better than what we fielded last year.

Happy to say I watched that game live. Those two offenses were fun to watch.

The calories-in-calories-out model is pretty much dead among diet researchers. The best research says all calories are NOT created equal. I'm losing two pounds a week eating as much as I want (no calorie counting) including some delicious high fat, high protein dishes.

Tomorrow: Spicy wings made with Korean gochujang sauce instead of Franks!

In the spirit of this thread, you're doing it exactly right. This is a good point too often ignored or unknown. TT certainly demonstrated some shortcomings over the past few seasons. But his stats were largely the product of an inferior passing scheme.

It's not Austin BBQ, but I eat good all the time. We like to try at least one new restaurant each week. More in good weeks. Plus my wife is a wiz in the kitchen and always trying new recipes from around the world. Who needs Jeremy Maclin when you eat like a king? We're barbecuing at home with some friends from Mexico and South America on the 24th. I'm guessing we'll have some Mexican street corn that day. Good stuff!

I apologize if this quote was posted before but I love Zay Jones' attitude about the possibility of signing Maclin: "I think that having the caliber of player like him coming to here, whether he chooses us or goes somewhere else, we're just going to be great. I was excited... He's a great person and a great player. I talked to him for a little bit. To learn from him and Sammy, would be a dream come true for me. I don't see it as a threat. We're here to win, everybody is here to win. The Super bowl is the ultimate goal. A playoff run is the ultimate goal, so however we can get that done, I'm all in... Whether he ends up here, or wherever he is, I wish him the best of luck and if he is here, that's just all the better for us." http://www.newyorkupstate.com/buffalo-bills/index.ssf/2017/06/buffalo_bills_wr_zay_jones_doesnt_feel_threatened_by_jeremy_maclin_visit.html

There's a small group here who like to attack people with differing opinions. But there's a larger group of passionate, big-hearted Bills fans here. They're the ones who keep me coming back. Amen, brother! I wonder how much money posters here gave to the Darryl Talley fund? I'll guess it was in the thousands.